


Saint Steve and the Holy Howling Commandos.

by NerdyKat



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Catholic Character, Saints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 10:09:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6190810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyKat/pseuds/NerdyKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My friends made me do this... Steve finds out he's a saint.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saint Steve and the Holy Howling Commandos.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ozhawk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozhawk/gifts).



> Hope all my fellow Catholics are getting on well with Lent (two more weeks! we're over the hump!)
> 
> I've actually been working on converting to Catholicism and this has been poking me for the last five months.
> 
> For those of you who don't know Catholics view the Saints as fellow Catholics who have already been admitted into heaven. We pray to them to pray for us as they're already wiped clean of all sin. Catholics do not worship the saints.

Steve Rogers was surprised by a lot of things when he was unfrozen. The food was a lot better, healthcare was better, and the technology was practically out of this world. What he hadn’t expected was that he had somehow accidentally been made a _Saint_ while he was in the Arctic.

Apparently, some of his childhood friends back home had prayed to him for intercession on their behalf and a miracle had occurred. Since it was Steve Rogers, the miracle got some international attention and after review by the Vatican, Steve was beatified. This, of course, caused a great deal of Americans to pray to him, and another miracle had occurred. And then another, which led to Steve standing in a church staring at a prayer card with an artist’s rendering of Steve on one side, with “Saint Steven” on one side, and a guided prayer on the other. Saint Steven; the Patron Saint of America, orphans, and chronically ill children. Steve tried calling the Vatican to tell them that they were wrong because he wasn’t dead, but apparently 'coming back to life' was considered another miracle, so he got nowhere.

He was relieve that Bucky had become ‘Blessed James Barnes’ and his patronage included victims of bullying. It was the only thing in the entire embarrassing affair that made it worth it. He did his part though, he visited orphanages and children’s hospitals and kept a smile plastered on his face despite his discomfort. He wasn’t a saint, he knew that and Bucky knew that, but history seemed to have forgotten Steve Rogers as the scrawny kid from Brooklyn.

His team all gave him crap for it endlessly. Everyone except for Thor who maybe had some past experiences of being venerated for more than who he actually was. Tony never shut up about it, and some small part of him ached for his mother, who would take a slipper to Tony’s ear for “taking the Lord’s miracles in vain,” as she would have put it. Despite all the attention, Steve didn’t realize how deeply it affected people until they found out Coulson was still alive when Tony (okay, JARVIS) happened across footage of the attack on Union Station in Los Angeles. Naturally, they just had to track Coulson down to have him explain himself.

Stark flew them all to LA within a few hours and they tracked Coulson down, still at the train station. They found him overseeing cleanup and general security of the station. Coulson went pale at the sight of the Avengers coming into the room, but that was nothing to how pale the young woman next to him went. She went sheet white then careened forwards. Coulson didn’t notice at all until one of his team gave a shout and by then it was too late. The sound that the young woman’s skull made against the marble floor was enough to make even Tony wince. The Avengers and SHIELD all seemed to converge on the centralized spot. Another young woman with a soft British accent had shouted something about the sky and came rushing forward, immediately stabilizing the poor agent’s head and neck while Coulson knelt beside the unconscious woman, also shouting “sky” again and again.

Just as the Avengers were reaching the group, the young woman’s eyes fluttered. “Holy Howling Commandos, did I see what I thought I saw?”

“Is she alright?” Clint asked stiffly, glaring daggers into Coulson.

“Jemma, I’m fine. Get off of me,” the young woman said.

“Skye, you could really be hurt,” Jemma argued, pressing her down.

“It’s taken more than that to hurt me,” Skye muttered, though Steve was fairly sure he and Natasha were the only ones who heard. Skye sat up though and stared up at Steve.

“Are you alright miss?” Steve asked her.

Skye blushed. “Yeah, it’s just… you were my patron saint at Saint Agnes’,” she said quietly.

“Another fan of the Saintly Captain, huh?” Tony asked teasingly.

Skye blushed harder. “No, I mean…” she pulled a card out of her back pocket and handed it to him. It was laminated, but still well-worn. The artist’s rendering of him was clearly from a picture taken before the serum. “Unofficially, growing up… at the orphanage we called you Saint Steve, patron saint of the underdog. Every year the confirmation class would vote on who would get him. My year it was unanimous. I, uh, I was in the system since birth. Never got adopted.”

Steve struck up a friendship with Skye after that. They emailed and texted and Natasha prodded him repeatedly to ask her out. He started going to the orphanages and Catholic children’s hospitals as Steve Rogers rather than Captain America. Just between him and Skye, he didn’t mind going as Steve nearly as much as he minded going as the Captain, and the kids really seemed to enjoy Steve just as much as the Captain. They would listen with rapt attention as Steve told them stories about the hospital trips and medications and long, sick nights where Bucky tried to keep him alive.

Steve was reminded of Bucky, and prayed that he really was in heaven more out of habit than anything else. Bucky who had died standing by his friend rather than standing against something. Bucky who had never not been there for Steve. Suddenly it clicked what Skye had been telling him all those months. It wasn’t a bad thing, being Saint Steve. He was giving hope to groups that were generally forgotten by the world.

Steve smiled a little at the Internet Memes Skye had emailed him late last night and shut his laptop, peering out at the view of the Capitol building from his apartment. It was time for his morning run. Saint Steve and the Holy Howling Commandos wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who follow my other stories, I sincerely apologize for the delay - my work schedule changed to a 3am-11:30am shift and in addition to that I've been going to Physical Therapy three times a week and it's kicking my butt these last couple ones. Friday is my last day though and I'll be back to writing a lot more.


End file.
